15 May 2012 Iran Isn’t the Aggressive Power Here

Regarding Robert Bernstein, Irwin Cotler and Stuart Robinowitz’s “Inciting Genocide Is a Crime” (op-ed, May 2): The false allegation that Iranian officials have incited acts of genocide against the Jews is utterly absurd. Suffice it to say that the constitutional rights of Iran’s Jewish minority is fully protected, and there are three Jewish lawmakers in Parliament. Iranian law strictly forbids any discrimination and hate crimes against any Iranian, including Jews.

Iran has been threatened by Israel’s politicians on a daily basis in direct violation of the U.N. Charter, and yet there is no mention of this by the authors. Iran has consistently defended the rights of the genocidally oppressed Palestinian people and opposed the Zionist regime’s illegal expansion of settlements in violation of international law. Compared to Israel, which has stockpiled hundreds of nuclear weapons and has refused to join the Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran is a member of the NPT and has a completely peaceful nuclear program that is fully monitored by the IAEA. The IAEA has repeatedly confirmed the absence of any evidence of military diversion of declared nuclear material.

At a time when the recent round of multilateral negotiation in Istanbul succeeded in building confidence and set the stage for more constructive dialogue for the next round in Baghdad later this month, it is unfortunate that the Israeli regime and its supporters in the U.S. have engaged in such a propaganda campaign aimed at poisoning the environment for the coming talks.